Neutronics analysis of uranium compounds spallation target using Monte Carlo simulation

Abstract In this paper, we investigated the neutronics performance of uranium carbide (UC), uranium nitride (UN) and uranium dioxide (UO2) monolith targets and granular targets by using GPU-based Monte Carlo particle transport program (GMT). Effects of the target thickness and diameter on leaked neutron yield of monolith targets irradiated by 1 GeV protons were studied; the leaked neutron yield and neutron spectra for the dense granular uranium compounds and UC-kernel TRISO type targets were presented. Results show that, with an optimal dimension ϕ 25 × 50 cm , uranium compounds target can produce 40% more leaked neutron yield than the tungsten target. Results also show that by 1 GeV protons incident on, our designed carbon and SiC layers coated UC-kernel TRISO type pellets target with about 70% kernel volume fraction can produce about 30% more leaked neutron yield than the granular tungsten target in their optimal diameters.